Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Upcoming Maintenance
Please be advised that this website will undergo scheduled maintenance on the following dates:
Thursday, 9 January: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Thursday, 23 January: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Thursday, 30 January: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
During these times, some functionality such as image purchasing may be temporarily unavailable. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Note
Date 21 June 2019
Event ID 1100664
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1100664
At least eight artificial caves have been excavated into the steep face of the sandstone cliff that forms the right (south) bank of the Ale Water at Ancrum. Seven of the caves (NT62SW 14.01-03 and 14.05-08) are situated on a 100m length of the river bank about 115m N of the centre of Ancrum. The eighth cave (NT63SW.04), which no longer exists, was situated 450m west of them. The Statistical Account mentions fifteen caves along the banks of the Ale, but these include others along the river to the west -- see NT62SW 4 (one cave) and east NT62SW 3 (seven caves). Research by RCAHMS for the Roxburgh Inventory (1956) suggests that at least some of the caves were already in use by the middle of the 16th century. None of the caves is now readily accessible and therefore the architectural features said to present in some, for example the vestiges of chimneys or fireplaces, cannot be easily confirmed. The caves along the south bank of the Ale Water were visited by HES staff in February 2017 or January 2018. None were entered and the following site descriptions are based largely on laser scan data obtained from the opposite bank of the river.
NT62SW 14.01 NT 62844 24695 Cave (Possible)
NT62SW 14.02 NT 62850 24700 Cave
NT62SW 14.03 NT 62853 24700 Cave
NT62SW 14.04 NT 62390 24630 Cave (Destroyed)
NT62SW 14.05 NT 62905 24722 Cave
NT62SW 14.06 NT 62907 24724 Cave
NT62SW 14.07 NT 62933 24734 Cave
NT62SW 14.08 NT 62936 24736 Cave
Information from HES Survey and Recording (GLB) 21 June 2019.
